Tag Archive for 'pro-birth'

Sex & Relationships: December news round up

Published on December 16, 2008 in Entertainment, Health and Shopping. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

birth-control

photo by blmurch

Romantic comedies are not your best date night movie option!

Romantic comedies set up unrealistic expectations in relationships.  Researchers at Hariot Watt University found their study subjects, after watching such films,  to be more apt to believe in soul mates, magical consistent sex with one’s partner and that in a good relationship one’s partner should be able to predict your needs, even if you don’t explicitly state them.

Kimberly Johnson, who also worked on the study, said: ‘Films do capture the excitement of new relationships but they also wrongly suggest that trust and committed love exist from the moment people meet, whereas these are qualities that normally take years to develop.’

You can help out with their next study on relationships, personality and media consumption, you can take part in a survey here.

A while back I read about a study that found couples were more likely to hook up after watching a horror film than other genres included in the study.  (A study I, of course, can’t locate right now).  Horror films get the adrenalin pumping and the blood flowing with the disadvantage of making your call into questions various aspects of your current relationship.

Looking good, feeling better.

Market researchers for Astral moisturizer in the UK surveyed more than 1000 women between the ages of 45-60 about their sex appeal and satisfaction.

The age at which a women feels most sexy is 34, according to a new study, that also found those in their twenties and thirties have the most sex – 10.4 times a month on average

This figure is double the amount middle-aged women have, which works out at just 4.5 times a month, but the research suggests the older women take more pleasure from it.

More than half – 56 per cent – said they enjoyed sex more than they did when they were younger.

Seems reasonable.  Women feel sexiest when they’re getting the most nookie.  Their partner(s) make them feel more desirable, yielding more sexual encounters.   Like everything else in life, practice makes closer to  perfect.  Older women have spent years figuring out what feels good to their bodies, so one would hope a good partner who understands one’s need would make for better sex.

Birth control pill available without a prescription in London

Here’s a solution to the Bush administration’s planned HHS regulations allowing medical professionals and staff to deny procedures and sales of medications that violate their own moral code.

A very progressive Department of Health in the UK is running a trial, which includes selling the birth control pill without a prescription to women 16 or older at 2 London pharmacies. The study aims to see if greater and easier accessibility to the birth control pill could lower teen pregnancy rates in the country.

The UK is actually serious about cutting back on unwanted pregnancy, unlike the US.  Here, pro-birth advocates are hard at work to cut government funding to Planned Parenthood chapters nationwide.   Why? Abortions make up 3% of the service offered at Planned Parenthood. Nevermind that abortion is legal and 38% their patients are there for contraceptives to prevent an unwanted pregancy (page 6 of Planned Parenthood Annual Report)

Abortion doesn’t cause depression

A John Hopkins University review of more than 21 studies looking at post-abortion mental health found no linkage between abortion and depression, but instead found “post abortion syndrome” to be a convenient political gimmick for the pro-birth movement.

‘Based on the best available evidence, emotional harm should not be a factor in abortion policy. If the goal is to help women, program and policy decisions should not distort science to advance political agendas,’ added Vignetta Charles, a researcher and doctoral student at Johns Hopkins who worked on the study.

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VOD: How anti-abortion legislation hurts all women (including the pro-life)

Published on November 24, 2008 in Health. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

When a fetus’s rights are protected before that of the mother, all women are threatened.  Women have been forced to submit to unwanted medical procedures and surgery all in the name of protecting life.

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Palin: No regard for rape victims

Published on September 8, 2008 in Politics. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

In 2000, Democratic Governor Tony Knowles signed House Bill 270, which among other things, banned the billing of rape victims for the processing of their own rape kits. Signing the bill, he said,

We would never bill the victim of a burglary for fingerprinting and photographing the crime scene, or for the cost of gathering other evidence, Knowles said. Nor should we bill rape victims just because the crime scene happens to be their bodies.

For those of you unfamiliar with rape kits, The Denver Post offers a graphic at the bottom of a 2007 article.

After being physically violated, the brave few that choose to report rapes undergo an invasive medical exam to capture every last bit of possible evidence from semen to pubic hairs to saliva, maximizing the possibility of prosecution should there be a DNA match.

What does this law have to do with Sarah Palin?  We already know that Sarah Palin is staunchly pro-birth, even if the cases of rape and incest, an extremist view embraced by only 17% of the electorate.  But Palin’s disregard for sexual assault victims gets worse.

Palin served as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska from 1996-2002.  Seeing as she felt the responsibilities were unextraordinary

‘It’s not rocket science,’ Palin said, ‘It’s 6 million and 53 employees.’

no doubt she was well versed in the policies and laws governing her community.

So it should come as a disturbing shock that in 2000, Wasilla charged sexual assault victims for the $300-$1200 worth of rape kit testing.  Wasilla Police Chief Charlie Fannon, hired by Palin, complained,

saying the law will require the city and communities to come up with more funds to cover the costs of the forensic exams.

In the past weve charged the cost of exams to the victims insurance company when possible. I just dont want to see any more burden put on the taxpayer, Fannon said.

According to Fannon, the new law will cost the Wasilla Police Department approximately $5,000 to $14,000 a year to collect evidence for sexual assault cases.

While Palin was drumming up $20 million in debt for her hometown thru a poorly executed grab at property for a sports complex, there wasn’t $14,000 to spare to pay to investigate rapes?

Over the last 30 years, Alaska has had the highest rape rate in the country for 23 of those years, holding the title yearly since 1993. In 2006, Alaska faced 76 rapes per 100,000 residents versus the national average of 30.9.  In a recent study of rape by the University of Alaska’s Justice Center:

In nearly 1,000 cases studied over two years, the average age of victims was 16, while the average age of those accused was 29. In four out of five cases, the suspects were relatives, friends or acquaintances.

It is estimated that roughly 5% of rape victims find themselves pregnant after an attack.

Cold comfort to the 1 in 6 American women who will be raped in their lifetimes, including the children in Alaska, that Governor Palin wasn’t concerned about tipped scales of justice against women in her home town.  But she’ll fight for the rights of gestating fetuses that result from those rapes.

I wonder how many rapes went unreported by women who couldn’t afford to pay the police to do their job?

Does Palin think anything should be done about the sexual assaults of 1 in 3 women serving in the Armed Forces?

I’m not counting on the mainstream media to find out.

UPDATE: A blogger dug through old Wasilla budget records to determine that the policy shift to put the burden of rape kit costs on victims began shortly after she appointed a new police chief. As she approved the police department’s budget; there’s no way she was unaware of the policy shift taking place.

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